The HR guy in me hates this trend and recognizes that it will waste employers’ and applicants’ time and effort. The owner of a background screening company in me recognizes that this trend means more background checks from our customers.

Mitigating the insider threat is a critical component of any information security program, and pre-employment screening is an effective tool towards attaining that objective. At the same time, the new legislative trend to ban the box and to impose other restrictions on the criminal history question raises the risk that an organization’s pre-employment screening program is illegal. Consequently, privacy professionals should now discuss with their colleagues in the human resources and legal departments whether the time has come to remove the criminal history question from their organization’s employment application. via Workplace Privacy Counsel | Littler Mendelson.